Dondakaya Vepudu & A Tornado Warning

Before writing about the recipe, let me tell you about something that happened today.
After a lazy, late breakfast today, I prepared lunch and was eagerly waiting for the sun to come out of the cloud wraps. For the past two days, it was hot and humid as it could be and today the sun was behind the clouds when I wanted to take my blog pictures. Soon it started to rain and it was almost past two. I quit and took some pictures in that poor light.
The rain stopped in few minutes, every thing was clear and suddenly,a noisy siren began to blow. We knew what it meant. The first time we heard it was last year. It scared the hell out of us and outside it was raining cats and dogs that day. It was a Tornado Warning.
This year though it was not that frightening, a funnel was spotted some where closer to our area. We had to take a shelter as we don't have a basement. We dressed up hurriedly and drove over towards our big, public library. A siren was blowing in that area too and so the staff gathered all the public in the basement, which was atleast 2 floors down. The warning lasted for 30 minutes.
After these two experiences of just alarms, I could not imagine how and what people go through, who have to face the deadly twisters year after year.

Now, time for today's recipe Dondakaya vepudu or Tindora fry.

Preparation:
Wash the dondakaya / tindoras well and chop the ends of each tindora. Vertically slit into four pieces and then chop them crosswise so that you end up with finely chopped tindora.
Chop a big onion finely.

Ingredients:
2 cups of chopped tindora
Finely chopped onion
Oil - 1.5 to 2 Tbsp
Chili powder - 1/2 - 3/4 tsp
Salt - accordingly
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Cooking:
Heat oil in a wok and add musatrd seeds. When they start to pop, add turmeric powder and onions. Saute onions on medium flame till they turn translucent and then add chopped tindora. Stir it well and cover the wok with a lid. Turn the flame to low and cook the tindora till done. Then fry the tindora for a couple of minutes more on high. Add salt and chili powder to it and mix it well. Let it sit for a couple of minutes more, mix it once again and turn off the stove.
Serve hot with rice and ghee.


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